Residents unleash call for dog parks

Northbrook, Glencoe officials are lobbied

September 23, 2005|By Susan Berger, Special to the Tribune.

Petitions are being circulated and park boards lobbied in an effort to add Northbrook and Glencoe to the list of dog-park communities.

In Northbrook this week, Sandra Pesmen was joined by about 20 people at a Park District board meeting. She brought photos of her 8-year-old black Labrador, Bolder, wearing a sign that read, "Dog park please," and a neighbor's dog wearing a "Bark for the park" sign.

"Fenced back yards are not good enough," Pesmen said. "The community should provide this."

In Glencoe, Shirley Hurst-Susman, a 33-year resident, has collected more than 400 signatures for her petition drive, which began last spring after officials started enforcing a new Cook County ordinance and telling her morning dog group that the owners could no longer congregate with their canines off leash on village and park property.

Canines can be off leash in public only in authorized dog parks, said Dan Parmer, administrator of the county Department of Animal and Rabies Control.

Katie Sweeney, Glencoe community service officer, said the ordinance also requires all dog parks to be fenced. The ordinance was the result of an outbreak of canine distemper largely attributed to dog parks.

There is also a requirement that dog parks issue permits that make sure the dogs are vaccinated for rabies, hepatitis, distemper, parvovirus and parainfluenza, Parmer said.

Hurst-Susman hopes to make a presentation on a dog park by December.

"We want to make sure that every possible problem is addressed so [the Glencoe Park Board] can't turn it down," said Hurst-Susman, owner of Zoe, a 2-year-old Dalmatian. "We're a full-service village. We should have a dog park."

Glencoe Park District Director Rod Aiken said the matter is fairly simple.

"It doesn't come down to dogs," Aiken said. "It's a space issue--the loss of green space and the impact on neighbors."

Glencoe dog owners made a push for a park in 2000 and 2002. Park District consultants looked in 2002 at Shelton Park, on inner Green Bay Road near Harbor Street, as a possible location, but found the space too small for a half-acre fenced-in park.

For years Glencoe residents were allowed to use the village's golf course and Park District beach when the seasons ended for dogs to run off the leash. Dog owners also would regularly meet in Lake Front Park, overlooking the beach.

The group has moved on to Highland Park, Sweeney said. Evanston, Deerfield, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Skokie, Wilmette and Winnetka also have dog parks.